Archive

“Let’s get into the DeLorean,” Frank Aquilino said. Wine after wine, he and Gary Pavlis took the standing-room-only group at the 44th Annual American Wine Society conference back further and further back in time to 1961 in Bordeaux.

Frank Aquilino pours a pride-and-joy.

Frank Aquilino, past president of the American Wine Society and Gary Pavlis, Ph.D., another past president of the AWS and Rutgers University wine and grape guru, poured a series of cherished, aged Bordeaux from Frank’s personal cellar to show the glory and the pleasure that comes from planning and patience.

With the exception of a destroyed Port from the late 1950s, this 1961 Croizet Bages is oldest beverage I’ve ever consumed. I had a 1969 Armangac in Bordeaux in 2006. Just the day before at the AWS Conference I had a 1966 Charles Krug Reserve Cabernet at vertical presented by Peter Mondavi, Jr.

But the Bordeaux tasting marked a new high.

Drinking a Bordeaux less than ten years old is “infanticide” Gary said. Aging requires patience and at least a full case of wine. After ten years, try a bottle, wait two more years and try another. Track the development of the wine. “You are supposed to have children in great Bordeaux vintages,” Gary said, as everyone checked the vintage chart against the birth of their offspring. My friends, John and Denise Nase of the Indian Valley, AWS Chapter, sitting with me, had done well with children born in 1995, 1999, and 2008. I’m not sure they picked up the requisite case of Bordeaux for each offspring.

I thought of an aging wine as reaching a peak, then immediately start sliding back down. But it’s a plateau, Gary explained. If it takes 30 years for a wine to reach its apex, he said, the wine will remain at a peak for 30 years.

It was an early day for Frank. He was up at 5 a.m. decanting the wines, nearly all classified growths including:

2007 Chateau Gruaud-Larose St. Julian, 2nd Growth

2001 Chateau Leoville-Barton St. Julian, 2nd Growth

1996 Chateau Legrange St. Julian, 3rd Growth

1990 Chateau La Louvieve Pessac-Leognan

1989 Chateau Beychevelle St. Julian, 4th Growth

1986 Chateau Lynch-Bages Pauillac 5th Growth

1975 Chateau Beychevelle St. Julian 4th Growth

1961 Croizet Bages Pauillac, 5th Growth

and, a wine not on the agenda brought as a back up:

1976 Chateau Greysac

I know… the mind reels.

I know Frank personally and he’s a realist. He knows there are wines in his cellar he’ll

What they looked like in the glass. (The '61 was poured just before tasting.)

never get to try. He joked about his daughters drawing lines down his wine cellar, staking claims. Also, like every person over the age of, like 30 or 40, his ability to taste and smell the nuances of wines like these is eroding a bit each year. A bottle of wine contains four glasses because it is meant to be shared. Frank wanted to share his wines with people who would appreciate them and he knew he would find those people at the American Wine Society conference.

Some of those wines were invaluable — there is no market for them because existing bottles aren’t –or haven’t been — on the market. Others cost hundreds of dollars when he purchased them, sometimes long ago. He declined to tell the crowd how much he paid for some, clearing his throat and noting: “My wife is in the back of the room.” We understood. He paid $360 for each bottle of Croizet Bages in the early 1990s.

Frank and Gary passed around zip lock bags with baseball mits, cigar boxes, tobacco — tertiary characteristics you are likely to find in old Bordeaux. I enjoyed the younger wines, and it was funny to hear Frank and Gary deride their youth: “It’s like a mouthful of toothpicks,” Gary said of the tannins. “No where near ready.” The Lagrange was one I would actually go out and buy. Many of the older ones were academic exercises, seeing what flavors were revealed after decades in Frank’s cellar. Herbs, anise, tobacco, leather. The Beychevelle smelled just like soy sauce.

Frank didn’t pour the Croizet-Bages until right before the tasting. When he once tasted a ’75 Greysac, the wine was heaven… for 15 minutes. Then it tasted like red-colored water. The Croizet-Bages tasted unlike any wine I ever had. The smells and tastes may sound odd, or even gross, to those unfamiliar with old, old wines, but the Croizet-Bages had character of ginger, holly, even fish oil with flavors of black olives and dried fruit and a finish of dry maple syrup.

At the end of the presentation, the room volunteer proposed a toast to Frank and Gary. While AWS crowds are always appreciative, this was a unique thanks for a unique experience. There were a lot of dry dump buckets.

Frank and samples from a life in wine

Dr. Pavlis with the 1961, and some bling

This was one of several memorable tastings at the 44th Annual American Wine Society Conference. A Champagne session included 12 wines, including some rare grower wines. “Wines of Provence” with Lisa Airy of the French Wine Society was fascinating. One lunch was paired with Chianti Classico another with Wines of Portugal. The Charles Krug session commemorated the 150-year history of the winery. Next year, the conference moves onward to Portland, Oregon.

David Falchek unscrambles the complex world of wine. Cutting through the uninteresting and uninspiring, David finds wines that over-deliver for the price or that offer something special. Firm in the belief that wine should an everyday drink for everyone, he loathes the word connoisseur and despises snobbery.

In addition to his weekly column that appears the Pennsylvania and New York publications, David's work has appeared in several wine magazines and he serves often as a wine judge. Based in Scranton, Pa., David is also a fan of non-West Coast wines with a particular affinity for those of Pennsylvania and New York.